This disclosure provides methods and systems for monitoring and reporting road violations of vehicles sharing roads with responding emergency vehicles. Specifically, this disclosure addresses enforcement issues related to an emergency vehicle, such as an ambulance, driving to a medical call. When an ambulance is dispatched and is racing above the posted speed limit to a medical emergency such as a level 3, Code 300 and above, as specified under New York law, people who are driving ahead of the ambulance should pull over to the side of the road. Vehicles coming in the opposite direction should also move out of the way, yielding to the emergency right-of-way demands of the ambulance. These actions are dictated by driving laws of the state, and are mentioned in the driving hand book handed out when one obtains a leaner's permit prescribing a driver to yield to emergency vehicles. Unfortunately, some drivers do NOT move out of the way of an ambulance with its horn, siren and emergency lights on. Time wasted getting to a medical emergency can put an injured person in a life threatening position. Notably, the disclosed methods and systems are also applicable to ALS (Advance life support) vehicles also known as fly cars. ALS vehicles are the medical right arm for some cities and outlining areas since cost prohibits every town from having an ambulance program including a state licensed medical paramedic on staff.
The difficulty associated with enforcement of yielding to emergency vehicles is that a police officer typically must be present to witness the event, and it is very difficult for an emergency vehicle driver to be able to maneuver his/her vehicle while attempting to notify the authorities of a non-yielding vehicle or even to write down the violator's plate for later reference. In addition, there is the issue of evidence related to the no-yielding event in a court proceeding. The issues with enforcement for emergency vehicles are in fact quite similar to those associated with people running red lights. In recent years, there has been a growth in automated enforcement of red lights using cameras at intersections. In addition, co-pending patent application Ser. No. 13/210,447 discloses technology for placing cameras on the side of school buses for automated processing of “passing a stopped school bus” violations. The present disclosure addresses the issue of enforcement of the requirement to yield to emergency vehicles using an automated/camera-based approach.